


Messiah - N7 Month Day 1

by miceenscene



Series: N7 Month 2019 [1]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Destroy Ending, F/M, Gen, N7 month, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-16 11:43:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21270494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miceenscene/pseuds/miceenscene
Summary: 'Don’t you ever feel something that’s too big for just words?'





	Messiah - N7 Month Day 1

There was a lot of art in London. It was one of the only other things Garrus noticed beyond how utterly, completely, totally the city had been ruined by the reapers. He could hardly turn a corner without seeing some form of art or another--whether just a scribble on a half-crumbled post box or to a full blown mural on a two-story high wall that used to be interior facing.

Tali noticed it too. When she asked Ashley about it over a hastily shared meal back at the Alliance headquarters, Ashley shrugged a casual shoulder.

“Humans sometimes express big emotions in art… don’t you ever feel something that’s too big for just words?” (The implicit accusation that would have accompanied that phrase had Ashley said it four years ago was missing, Garrus noticed. Tali noticed that too, she later told him with a smile.)

Garrus had to admit he didn’t quite understand what Ashley had said. How could something be too big for words? What was bigger than that? He didn’t understand until one afternoon. 

It was raining, like it always seemed to be here on Earth. A steady, delicate drizzle that puddled in the folds of his clothing to drip into his eyes. Garrus pulled at the lapels of his jacket, shaking off an epidermis of water as he waited for Liara. She stepped out of the cracked, slanted doorway and looked at him, a very practiced and purposefully hopeful look in her eyes.

“Anything?” she asked.

“Would I be standing here if there was?” he groused back, his mood had long since turned as grey as the sky overhead.

Liara just nodded and the two of them fell into perfect step with each other. It was automatic at this point, uncontrollable, habit built after dozens--maybe hundreds--of missions together with the two of them and… and  _ her _ . Liara’s mouth twitched as she noticed their matched cadence, but neither of them commented.

“It’s just up the road a few blocks,” Liara said, half to herself, as they turned a corner in their relatively short journey.

Still in sync, they stopped as they both noticed something at the same time. The building on the corner was probably housing of some sort, Garrus surmised, though long-since abandoned. All that was left was a tall flat brick wall that someone had chosen to draw a large mural upon. 

In the center was an armoured silhouetted human with a red stripe down one arm, standing alone on a small hill. She was reaching straight forward, a hand straining towards the viewer as if to offer them aid. The legs of an attacking reaper surrounded the figure like the rays of a sun, or the ring of an explosion. And outside of that was a sight he’d never forget, the five completely open arms of the Citadel, captured in the final moments before they erupted. The same color as the stripe on her arm surrounded the arms in an aura--a wave--of red.

Underneath the striking image was a phrase, repeated several times in different human languages.

_ A Messiah for the Galaxy _

Garrus and Liara stood side by side for an unknowable period of time, each staring, studying, memorizing the piece as the rain continued to pour.

Garrus understood what Ashley had meant now. And he wasn’t sure that he wanted to.

“Wrex said that Shepard will mean ‘hero’ to the krogan.” Liara’s voice was far off, and a little wondrous sounding. “But it’s not just the krogan… it’s everyone. She… saved…  _ everyone _ .” 

Liara stepped towards the wall, a slightly shaking hand reaching towards the one depicted in the mural for a moment. Then she turned abruptly and rummaged through her bag. A moment later, she pulled out a marker and underneath the last human language she repeated the phrase, writing it in Thessian.  _ A Messiah for the Galaxy _ . She looked back at him, offering the marker to him. But he didn’t move.

“She never wanted to be a messiah,” he said in a low voice, unsure himself if Liara was meant to hear it or not.  _ She wanted to help people _ .

Garrus found himself angry at the idea that someone, anyone, would consider her a messiah, that even Liara considered her such. It was the sacrificial undertone to the idea that really bothered him. Yes, Shepard was a savior, a triumphant hero, but she was not a lamb led to the slaughter for the good of the galaxy. She  _ couldn’t _ be, he wouldn’t allow it.

So he took the from Liara and joined her near the wall. For a very long moment, he stared up at the figure in the mural. So he leaned down, marker poised next to the brick for a second, and then he wrote in Palaveni.

_ A Helper for the Galaxy _

Liara nodded as he stepped back and handed her back her marker.

“Next hospital’s just up the road?” he asked, dogged determination dawning now.

“Yes.” She glanced at the phrase he’d written and then up at the mural. “We’ll find her, Garrus.”

He glanced up at the figure, reaching up and touching a hand to hers, and nodded. “Yeah. We will.”


End file.
